JBeezWriter

Yes, at least my U was always open to having Admits do a campus visit, regardless of when. And yes, you could get an offer of admission--with funding--close to April 15th, depending on how it goes. One year, someone had accepted early, then changed their mind, and an offer to one on the list was made after April 15th. It's rare, but it happens. Remember--this does not in any way mean you're not good enough. It means there was a very large pool of well-qualified candidates, and the committee had some hard decisions to make, and it just shook out the way that it did because the ones in the initial pool opted to go elsewhere.
Some of our best grad students were wait-listers... some have gone on to do very noteworthy things, award-winning things, bestseller things. So, wait-listers don't suck. Even if you're rejected from somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean you suck, it just means that you and the program were determined to not be a good fit for each other. Sometimes you're rejected one year, reapply the next year, and get in via the initial round of offers.
It's a total crapshoot, in some ways. Some years, a popular program gets 200 applicants. Other years, that same program for some odd reason gets only 75 applicants. And even if it gets 75 applicants (if you're one, that's 74 competitors for, say, five spots), maybe the majority of them accept elsewhere. It's inexplicable. It's unpredictable and bizarre.
So, if a graduate degree is what you really want, don't let anything get you down. Keep the faith on up through April 15th. Hang in there, keep trying, if you don't make it this year, finesse your application materials and try again next year. It ain't over til it's over.

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.
So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.
From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.
In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?
Still, it sucks to wait.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. 
I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. 
I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. 
I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. 
I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. 
I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. 
I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Congratulations!!

That said, I am still refreshing my email every 5 seconds.

Since we're entering the toughest part of application season, I figured I'd post this:

As many of you may remember, this is my second year applying. Last year I got into a couple programs, but I didn't get the funding I needed. I strongly considered going anyway, but decided the back-breaking debt was not worth it (as financial flexibility is the greatest asset a creative person can have, in my opinion). It was incredibly painful to brush up against my dream without actually achieving it.

I can’t say yet whether this year will bring me success, but I can say I’m glad I didn’t attend in 2019. This past year has been profoundly challenging – creatively, mentally, personally – but I’ve grown more as a person and a writer than I ever thought possible in such a short span. I’ve proven that I can produce writing I’m proud of outside of a university. And honestly, I rose to meet some challenges that may have been insurmountable if I’d been balancing grad school and TA responsibilities. Those struggles also put the luxury of an MFA in perspective; it's still something I want to do, but I no longer view it as the most important thing I can do with my 20s.
In short, I wasn’t ready for grad school last year.

You may strike out this year (heck, I might too), and it will suck, there’s no denying that. But grad school is just one of many amazing things you can do. Ultimately, handling rejection and weathering heartbreak are vital skills for a writer, and MFA programs don’t teach you that. Perhaps that’s a bit corny, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Yes, at least my U was always open to having Admits do a campus visit, regardless of when. And yes, you could get an offer of admission--with funding--close to April 15th, depending on how it goes. One year, someone had accepted early, then changed their mind, and an offer to one on the list was made after April 15th. It's rare, but it happens. Remember--this does not in any way mean you're not good enough. It means there was a very large pool of well-qualified candidates, and the committee had some hard decisions to make, and it just shook out the way that it did because the ones in the initial pool opted to go elsewhere.
Some of our best grad students were wait-listers... some have gone on to do very noteworthy things, award-winning things, bestseller things. So, wait-listers don't suck. Even if you're rejected from somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean you suck, it just means that you and the program were determined to not be a good fit for each other. Sometimes you're rejected one year, reapply the next year, and get in via the initial round of offers.
It's a total crapshoot, in some ways. Some years, a popular program gets 200 applicants. Other years, that same program for some odd reason gets only 75 applicants. And even if it gets 75 applicants (if you're one, that's 74 competitors for, say, five spots), maybe the majority of them accept elsewhere. It's inexplicable. It's unpredictable and bizarre.
So, if a graduate degree is what you really want, don't let anything get you down. Keep the faith on up through April 15th. Hang in there, keep trying, if you don't make it this year, finesse your application materials and try again next year. It ain't over til it's over.

First acceptance is in. Still waiting for the other three.

First acceptance is in. Still waiting for the other three.

Zen friends.

Just a random post, Iowa acceptance and rejections have the best notes of any school. Some notes are hilarious, others painful, others exciting etc

The right program will know if it’s the right fit for BOTH of you. This is a very subjective process – everyone else is spot on suggesting you keep writing and striving for publication. It’s just school. 

I'm so sorry about the rejection. As @rbr542 has said, it's all subjective. Just think some day they will include your works in their reading list. That's my survival strategy whenever I got rejections or bad grades in schools. Haha. 

Sorry about the rejection. Keep in mind that it's all subjective. Just because you didn't get into WUSTL, doesn't mean another program won't think you're a good fit!

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.
So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.
From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.
In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?
Still, it sucks to wait.

Yes, at least my U was always open to having Admits do a campus visit, regardless of when. And yes, you could get an offer of admission--with funding--close to April 15th, depending on how it goes. One year, someone had accepted early, then changed their mind, and an offer to one on the list was made after April 15th. It's rare, but it happens. Remember--this does not in any way mean you're not good enough. It means there was a very large pool of well-qualified candidates, and the committee had some hard decisions to make, and it just shook out the way that it did because the ones in the initial pool opted to go elsewhere.
Some of our best grad students were wait-listers... some have gone on to do very noteworthy things, award-winning things, bestseller things. So, wait-listers don't suck. Even if you're rejected from somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean you suck, it just means that you and the program were determined to not be a good fit for each other. Sometimes you're rejected one year, reapply the next year, and get in via the initial round of offers.
It's a total crapshoot, in some ways. Some years, a popular program gets 200 applicants. Other years, that same program for some odd reason gets only 75 applicants. And even if it gets 75 applicants (if you're one, that's 74 competitors for, say, five spots), maybe the majority of them accept elsewhere. It's inexplicable. It's unpredictable and bizarre.
So, if a graduate degree is what you really want, don't let anything get you down. Keep the faith on up through April 15th. Hang in there, keep trying, if you don't make it this year, finesse your application materials and try again next year. It ain't over til it's over.

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.
So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.
From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.
In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?
Still, it sucks to wait.

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.
So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.
From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.
In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?
Still, it sucks to wait.

Yes, at least my U was always open to having Admits do a campus visit, regardless of when. And yes, you could get an offer of admission--with funding--close to April 15th, depending on how it goes. One year, someone had accepted early, then changed their mind, and an offer to one on the list was made after April 15th. It's rare, but it happens. Remember--this does not in any way mean you're not good enough. It means there was a very large pool of well-qualified candidates, and the committee had some hard decisions to make, and it just shook out the way that it did because the ones in the initial pool opted to go elsewhere.
Some of our best grad students were wait-listers... some have gone on to do very noteworthy things, award-winning things, bestseller things. So, wait-listers don't suck. Even if you're rejected from somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean you suck, it just means that you and the program were determined to not be a good fit for each other. Sometimes you're rejected one year, reapply the next year, and get in via the initial round of offers.
It's a total crapshoot, in some ways. Some years, a popular program gets 200 applicants. Other years, that same program for some odd reason gets only 75 applicants. And even if it gets 75 applicants (if you're one, that's 74 competitors for, say, five spots), maybe the majority of them accept elsewhere. It's inexplicable. It's unpredictable and bizarre.
So, if a graduate degree is what you really want, don't let anything get you down. Keep the faith on up through April 15th. Hang in there, keep trying, if you don't make it this year, finesse your application materials and try again next year. It ain't over til it's over.

Our department didn't use interviews as a basis of admission. Ours called applicants after sending out initial funding and admission offers, to touch base and answer questions to help the applicant make a decision. Applicants tend to think the process is all one-sided, that the institutions just sit back and let the applicants roll in. Because nearly every applicant is also applying to multiple other universities, the universities are also competing against each other. The institutions are just as concerned about being able to assemble a full cohort as the applicants are concerned about getting in. So in our case, the email with the offer comes, then the phone call is a friendly follow-up; the university is already committed to you, now it's your turn. It's more like a tennis match than a baseball game.
And yes, if you happened to be on the wait list... example, say the deadline is December 1st. First two weeks, applications are being read and discussed and often argued over. Decisions are made. Initial offers are made. Say it takes a month for one to get back to the university--declines the offer. Program goes back to the list, calls the one next in line to gauge whether they're still available and interested. If the applicant says "oh my goodness YES", then an offer is sent out right away. There's always a chance that in that month's time, #6 on the list has accepted elsewhere and has no interest in undoing that. So then they move to #7 and repeat. Sometimes the program has to wait for a return call if they get voice mail. Sometimes the applicant sits on their decision for a week or two, which is understandable as it's a big decision, but also irritating, LOL because the Program wants commitments and answers just as much as the applicant does.
So if it's like end of March and you haven't heard anything at all or you've heard that initial offers went out but you're still under consideration, and then you get a phone call, you're likely getting that call because the program wants to offer admission. I can't speak for programs like those at Iowa, for example, but at the mid-sized state universities with well-established programs, that's how it works in general.